The impact of the UbiDuo on the Calendar – sComm CEO Jason Curry

Even if an employer provides an interpreter for the training period of a new deaf employee, that employer cannot be expected to provide an interpreter on a daily basis, after training has concluded. The true test begins when face-to-face communication takes place between deaf and hearing employees as soon as the interpreter walks out of that environment. An interpreter simply cannot be present and available for a deaf employee and his/her hearing co-workers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  No agency or company can place an interpreter beside a deaf or hard of hearing employee for even a portion of that time (8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 260 work days a year) to provide unlimited face-to-face communication with their hearing co-workers. There is a solution to that problem – filling in the everyday face-to-face gap?   The UbiDuo. The UbiDuo allows for face-to-face, direct communication when an interpreter is not available, or not practical to provide.  The UbiDuo empowers deaf or hard-of-hearing employees and their hearing co-workers to communicate face-to-face from one to as many encounters a day that they desire.  People who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can communicate on the spot, quickly and efficiently by using the UbiDuo with co-workers, managers and clients. Unlimited face-to-face communication gives employees who are deaf the same level of interaction and opportunities as their hearing peers.  One UbiDuo user put it like this, “I can communicate all day long independently without an interpreter. We had a daily 10-minute meeting in which I was never included because the interpreter was never available and because of interpreter costs. Now I am in every daily meeting. I have a chance for a promotion now.  And more importantly my number of face-to-face encounters grew to an average of 25 times a day with hearing co-workers” I want to show you how a hearing employee and a deaf employee communicate face-to-face daily using the calendar.  Look at how much more frequently deaf employees can communicate with their entire team simply with the addition of the UbiDuo.  The calendar can be an eye-opener if you think about it in terms of the number of face-to-face encounters that deaf or hearing people experience on a daily basis. People don’t really understand what the deaf or hard-of-hearing employee is missing by not getting the same number of face-to-face encounters as their hearing peers.  When an employee experiences unlimited face-to-face encounters with their co-workers, they experience empowering everyday relationships, opportunities and promotions. Imagine a hearing employee at his or her job, working every day from 8:00 to 5:00.  He experiences an average of 25 face-to-face encounters with co-workers, managers, clients, and other hearing peers, with zero communication barriers.  Hearing co-workers can sit down and discuss work-related issues at 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m.  They can talk multiple times a day, every single day. Now picture a person who is deaf, sitting at a desk, wanting to discuss the same work-related issues with her hearing co-worker.  Do you see that they cannot have the same face-to-face encounters as their hearing co-worker?  It isn’t possible because of the communication barriers. They would have to schedule an interpreter to come to the office – maybe on the 3^rd and the 17^th of the month – to facilitate face-to-face encounters.   What about the rest of the month? People who are hearing would not want to be limited to 2-5 face-to-face encounters in a month, being unable to communicate freely the rest of the time.  A hearing person would say, “I can’t do my job that way.” Yet that is what happens to a person who is deaf.   Do you think that is fair?  The hearing employee gets unlimited face-to-face encounters, while the deaf employee doesn’t.  Think about it. Now think about how the UbiDuo can enable deaf employees to have unlimited face-to-face encounters just like their hearing co-workers.  The UbiDuo is not about replacing interpreters.  It is about taking deaf employee to the place where they can experience unlimited face-to-face communication with their hearing peers – allowing them to communicate on a daily basis without any communication barriers. Lastly, it is not really about the interpreter in the first place.  It is about the deaf and the hearing employees having a daily relationship with each other, working together freely in their workplace with the ability to exchange 100% verbal information.  That’s the bottom line.